Political bills submitted to House for deliberation
JAKARTA (JP): The head of a government team set up to formulate three political laws, Ryaas Rasyid, said that draft bills were submitted to the House of Representatives (DPR) for consideration on Wednesday.
The draft laws on general elections, political parties and on the function and composition of the DPR, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and regional legislative councils (DPRD) have been screened by the State Secretariat and are now ready for discussion, he said on Thursday.
Ryaas, who is also director general for regional autonomy and general administration in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the latest revision of the draft law on elections included a clause which would allow members of the Civil Servants Corps (Korpri) to vote for political parties of their own choosing.
Korpri is part of the Big Golkar Family, a fact which so far obliges its 4 million members to vote for the ruling political group. The government continues to insist that Golkar is a functional group and not a political party.
Ryaas added that as bureaucrats, members would still not be allowed to join political parties.
"A government employee must obtain his superior's consent and apply for non-paid leave or permanently resign from the corps if he joins a political party," he explained after the opening of a two-day meeting of the country's 27 provincial governors.
Ending speculation on what electoral system the government would prefer, the draft law on general elections proposes a combination of a district system, under which the electorate would vote directly for politicians, and proportional representation, under which votes would be cast for parties and not people. House members will be selected on a proportional basis.
The draft law on elections requires a political party to have at least 14 provincial chapters nationwide or 1 million registered members before it can contest an election.
The two requirements are expected to exclude many of the 80 political parties which have been set up in the country since May this year.
The draft law on political parties states that a political party must be established by at least 50 people and must not differentiate its members according to their ethnicity, religion, race or gender.
It also suggests limiting the amount of money that a political party can receive from individuals and groups or institutions in any single year.
"A political party can receive a maximum of Rp 5 million (US$454.5) in financial support from any one private citizen in any single year and a maximum of Rp 50 million from groups or institutions over the same period," the draft reads.
The draft also reaffirms that neither members of the Civil Servants Corps or the Armed Forces (ABRI) can stand for election and that members of ABRI are not entitled to vote.
The draft law on the function and composition of the DPR, MPR and the regional legislative councils suggests that the chairmanship of the MPR and DPR should be separated.
The draft proposes an MPR with 700 seats, 550 of which would go to members of the House (including 55 appointed Armed Forces legislators). Eighty-one seats would be allocated to regional representatives and the remaining 69 seats would go to members of religious, racial and occupational groups.
Apparently in response to the widely held opinion that in the past the House and the Assembly served only to "rubber stamp" the government's legitimacy, the team has inserted a clause which would ban members of the two institutions from simultaneously holding positions in the executive branch of government.
Clause 45 in chapter VII states that a member of the House cannot hold "a position at any level in the executive or judicial branches of the government." Clause 44 rules forbids Assembly members from holding positions such as governor, regent or the head of a state body.
"Hopefully the discussion (of the laws) can be completed by December," Ryaas said. That would give us just enough time to prepare for the election next May. (imn)